Today, You’re Supposed to be Sad

by Mel

I just wanted to set this out there because I know everyone hates to miss an opportunity to be sad. It would be like suddenly realizing that you missed Valentine’s Day on February 15th, or discovering that — crap! — you totally forgot New Year’s Eve on December 31st. Today, Monday, January 21st, is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year.

It could be because my people are immune to Blue Monday, which apparently is depressing due to its proximity to Christmas. You see, my people do not celebrate Christmas — it’s just a day to go to the movie theater or do volunteer work — and therefore, we also don’t have strong feelings when it’s over, mostly because we can still go to the movie theater and do volunteer work. It also takes into account debt accrued during said holiday, and since we do not accrue massive amounts of debt because of Christmas, our bills in January are no more depressing than our bills from February — December.

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, you might also be immune to Blue Monday, since it takes into account weather, and I’m going to guess that your summer weather doesn’t feel too craptastic right now. (And if you are a Jewish Australian, I feel like we should feed you to Christian Americans like a vitamin because we can’t even fathom the level of immunity you have to this day.)

But the rest of you finally have an explanation for why you feel so crappy on the Monday of the last full week of January. I mean, except for the fact that it seems to have been chosen somewhat randomly. But other than that, it’s science.

I wanted to give you this heads up that you’re going to be sad today so you can prep for it. Make sure you are stocked with tissues, sad movies, chocolate bars, fuzzy socks, a charged cell phone, and a good book. And then take a day to wallow. Because it’s back to normal levels of despondency come Tuesday.

I’m pretty sure that here in theUK we were told to be miserable earlier in January! Not sure if that signifies that thenation takes Christmas too seriously so come down harder or whether we are just less robust than Americans….

LOL! I too have missed out on this. Thankfully I just happen to have some chocolate, hot tea, tissues (it’s cold outside), a charged mobile and good book (3rd HP) and baby boy is sleeping!!!, so I’m definitely doing very well today.

We don’t go into debt for xmas (omg! I find that insane!) and it is just another day for me. I am a bit sleepy though…

I remember this from the past year or two, although I didn’t know it was today. I can’t say I feel any more depressed than I normally am for a cold January Monday. ; ) (At least most of you in the States have a holiday today, lol.) I generally find February to be a much more difficult month to get through than January — my least favourite month of all. :p Thankfully, it’s a short one.

I’m actually not sad today. The sun is shining, although it is cold, my kids have the day off so I get to spend time with them, and President Obama gets sworn in (unofficially). How bad can it be? I get sad when the house is quiet and I am all alone with nothing to do except stuff that I don’t really want to do.

Well thanks for the heads up. I was having an awesome morning, baking with my daughter and dancing with the whole fam. Guess I better cancel the rest of my fun plans for today, too. And prepare to be mopey.

Thank goodness you told me! I would have missed out on celebrating this holiday! lol, I’ve never heard of it, but it sure does seem crazy to have a day set aside to be sad. Don’t we have enough of those already without someone, somewhere setting aside a FULL day for it? Crazy.

It’s a sad Monday for me because I start back to school tomorrow and I don’t WANNA. This break has flown by too fast. It’s too fucking cold to go outside. I’m going to have to walk REALLY FAST through snow, ice, and cold in order to get from class A to class B in 15 minutes when they are across campus from each other. Did I mention cold? It was 0* when I got up this morning.

Interesting! I had never pegged it today. But back in college, we actually got a random long weekend/winter break the end of January/beginning of February and I never knew why. When I did ask, someone told me it was the saddest time of year and suicides actually statistically skyrocketed between those dates. I guess in my memory it was closer to Valentine’s Day.

Funny: I’m just now reading your post and had never heard of Blue Monday. . . and yet I *was* sad today. But not for the reasons you mentioned. Here in Phoenix, the sun is shining brightly, and I paid cash for all my Christmas gifts, so no out-of-the-ordinary debt to get me down.

Interesting. I always find February the most depressing month (and it doesn’t matter which hemisphere I am in- it’s a terrible month regardless). Bad things seem to happen and I have no resilience at all.

And I note that living in Australia hasn’t helped- we went for a scan yesterday and there was no heartbeat- so we will go with couch and video option too.

So who’s the patron of Blue Monday? Valentine’s Day is St. Valentine. We just talked about Befana. Then there’s the new year’s baby and father time for New Year’s. Easter involves bunnies. Etc, etc. Just curious if there’s some character dressed as a moon weeping uncontrollably I’m suppose to be looking for.

And thank you for alerting me to this holiday! Classes start tomorrow, so I’ll be sure to let my students know they should have gotten all their depression about being back in school worked out.

I thought it was going to be a sad Monday, because it was going to be the return to a full week of work after many weeks with days off. Then I remembered that I have doctor’s appointment tomorrow. And next week I have a dentist’s appointment. So it looks like February before I’ll have to work a full week. Life is good!

I was just in the Oregon valley for a wine tasting weekend and boy was the weather depressing! I woke up this morning to the wet fog and cold chill. Once we left the valley and over the mountain I came home to CLEAR BLUE SUNNY skies and a positive OPK!! Not all blue days are bad days! 😉 Happy ICLW!!!!!!

A thought from the Southern Hemisphere (where it’s already Tuesday). In our city, we had a public holiday yesterday, so Blue Monday wasn’t too blue. But it could be blue in the rest of the country – because it marks the end (usually) of our summer break, and is the first week when most people are back at work after a long break since Christmas. So that’s a bit depressing. Still, there is warmth and sunshine and I’m about to go out and have wine on the deck with my husband, so yeah, not too blue at all.

I think our (NZ’s) equivalent is probably the second Monday in June, when we have the entire winter to get through, and no public holidays until late October. Now that’s depressing!

Who is Mel?

Melissa, otherwise known as Mel, The Stirrup Queen, and most recently nicknamed Lollipop Goldstein, has been blogging since 2006. In addition to STIRRUP QUEENS, she also writes the daily Lost and Found (LFCA). She also writes for BlogHer. You can join her on StumbleUpon. She's known to Twitter about her wonky ovaries.